Autonomous Airships Keep Tabs on Energy Infrastructure

Powered by hydrogen?

So I’m assuming it has large heavy tanks and a heat exchanger to warm it up?

Hydrogen although light needs a lot of heavy equipment to use it, I’m not sure where the boundary between hydrogen and batteries is, at what distance.

Fluorescent tubes? One experiment is to light a tube by holding it close to an electric field? Couldn’t it derive power via this whilst flying along power lines? I’m guessing it’s the wrong orientation.

Looks a lot like CloudLine[0], including the use-case.. I wonder which was first. CloudLine has a 40kg payload (vs the 10 here) but it's 20m long (vs 12 here).

This article is almost identical to news coverage of CloudLine too.. an advertorial of sorts, I guess. Including speed, payload, comparison to traditional methods and how drones only have niche use-cases mostly due to range and payload.

[0]: https://www.flycloudline.com/

Tell PG&E. We've got helicopters buzzing about the countryside, checking power lines.

Whereas, from my ridge I can see 10 or 12 poles. I'll report for cheap.

Just my entire electric bill.